Pain
by soldier1917
Summary: Pain is a constant, always there. It seems this new life, and these new people are only making it worse. Pain is a terminal disease for which there is no cure; under normal circumstances at least. I always had to deal with it alone...but sometimes pain can alleviate, even if it is temporary. I may have just found the permanent cure.
1. chapter 1 - first impressions

Tessa's POV

"wake up."

I woke up to a raspy whisper encompassing my bedroom; a large, strong hand was on my shoulder rocking me awake. My eyes shot open to see nothing; my body instantly filled with anxiety. I jolted up and pushed myself away from the intruder until I was against the wall. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears as my breathing quickened. The moonlight shone through my curtains and helped me make out what i was dealing with; a _very_ muscular man. _Shit._ My eyes bounced frantically, trying to take in every detail of this stranger. I saw something gleaming on the back of his left shoulder; _a knife._ _He's planning to kill me._

"what the hell..." I whispered. The intruder stood up slowly, moonlight was shining on their jaw and shoulders. His jawline was sharp, rough, and scruffy; the tips of his dark hair were grazing over his shoulders. I was blinded by a beam of light bouncing off his left shoulder. _The knife… wait…_ this was different. He shifted and a red star flashed into sight, painted on his... _arm?_ _His arm is metal? This guy has a metal arm…_ The intruder spoke in a deep, crackly voice.

"we have to get out of here." there was _**almost**_ no emotion in what the man said. I paused… _wait so he's kidnapping me instead..._

"This is a dream. This has to be a dream." I laughed hysterically as I pinched my arm so hard I gave myself a bruise. O _kay so maybe this is real. Why would someone want to kidnap me? And why wouldn't they just take me by force?_ "Why do we have to leave?" yes, a dumb question I already knew the answer to… but I was stalling. Thinking of ways to escape and hurt this guy.

"They didn't let you know?!" the intruder's bushy eyebrows met as he furrowed them in confusion. _what the?..._

"who's the heck is 'they' and what are you talking about?" again; stalling, but also interested to know why this guy expected me to know what was going on. I heard the man cursing/mumbling to himself. He sighed before he said,

"Listen, I don't have time to tell you anything right now…" I wasn't even looking at him. My eyes wandered around the room making possible escape plans. "Follow me" he finished his sentence and my gaze snapped towards him. _Who was this guy?_ I almost laughed at his question. I mean, c'mon! Some guy breaks into my room and expects me to trust him? But, from my guesses, an intruder would just kidnap me...not take the time to ask questions; let alone have a conversation with me.

"You really think I want to follow you to who-knows-where after you broke into my room?!" I hissed. The man rolled his eyes as though he has been through this multiple times before.

"Just... please?" The mans eyes seemed to silently plead me to obey his command. His sudden use of politeness threw me for a loop at first, but then my heart relaxed and my body slumped into a natural state as I realized that-suddenly this man didn't seem like a threat anymore, he was positioned comfortably; not tense or defensive. His knees were bent as he put his weight on his left leg. _Probably a result of the heavy metal arm._ His shoulders were back and his arms hung loosely by his sides. He didn't seem in a hurry at all...

"Yes." I answered 'yes' only because there was some hesitation to say no right away. Any sane person would have said 'no' faster than you can blink an eye… but something about him seemed familiar. _Did I know him?_

"Okay, let's go then." I nodded. He stepped cautiously around my piles of clutter and I watched as this guy climbed down the roof to our tree; I noticed that he was very agile. I snapped out of my stare when he motioned for me to follow. I stepped cautiously down the roof and onto the tree. I had climbed a thousand trees when I was younger, but apparently that wasn't enough. I made my way down the branches and stepped down confidently, only to realize that there was no branch beneath me. I fell the remaining five feet and landed harshly on the bricks outlining the trunk. I saw my intruder walking towards the driveway, but as he turned back he ran over to me. He bent down next to me and scooped me up gently. "Tessa!" he whispered, "what happened?" _he knew my name?_

"what?…" my vision went in and out of focus. My head suddenly felt warm despite the snow around us. I reached up and touched my forehead only to look at the warm blood on my fingers.

"That impact should have knocked you out!" the man whispered as he walked into my backyard.

"I know…" i said drowsily. I felt myself slipping in and out of consciousness. I looked up at this man that was carrying me. I noticed how handsome he was; his face was very structured, he had dark brown hair, a scruffy jaw, and he was very muscular; almost unnaturally muscular actually. "what's your name?" I slurred out. He looked down at me and smiled. _So he does have at least a little emotion left in him..._

"Bucky." he said.


	2. chapter 2 - regret

Bucky's POV -

The quinjet landed softly in the snow of her backyard. I unbuckled my seatbelt and rustled around the jet to find some gloves. _I hate this. I finally got done with being the winter soldier and now i'm breaking and entering._ _Great for my reputation I presume._

"Steve...this isn't okay." I was trying to convince Steve out of this as I slipped the thick, yellow construction gloves on. _I mean, we don't need another addition to the compound anyway, and this girl isn't harming anyone…_

"I know I know. This isn't my thing either, but Tony said she could become a threat...Buck, you know we have to do this." Steve looked at me with his blue eyes as if he was staring straight to my dead, blackened soul.

"Yeah…" I said as I stepped down on the ramp quietly. I started to shake my head while laughing out of disbelief. _I actually can't believe I was the one stuck doing this._ _Like why me anyway? Why not someone who wasn't an assassin? Why not someone who wouldn't freak her out?_ I tried the back deck door - _locked_. The front door - _locked_.

"Ugh" I sighed to myself as I checked all the lower windows. _All locked...this is when the job gets more difficult…_ I climbed up her tree in the front yard and made my way to the windows on the second floor and _thank goodness_ one of them was open. Before I went in the house, I pulled out a small file from my vest. I knew her name, age, and potential threat reasons… nothing else. No picture of her either - _huh. that's weird._ I quietly pried the open window even further out so I could get in; Thankfully I didn't hear or see any movement. I took out the window screen and quietly stepped in. Her room was...whimsical. It had little trinkets on shelves, the whole thing had so much character and so many memories… I thought back to how my room looked; _the only decoration I owned were the dents in the walls._ I walk up to her twin bed covered with forest green and grey sheets that were revealed in the moonlight. Her face was also in the moonlight... I don't know what I expected her to look like; but not this. She had long black-brown, unruly hair, thick eyebrows, and long, dark eyelashes.

"wake up." she quickly sat up and was obviously scared of me. I answered the regular questions 'who are you?' etc etc. "Follow me" I said this knowing full well that the answer would probably be on the lines of; 'of course not! are you kidding me?!'. I noticed that this request captured her attention. She moved forward as her face came into view; she gazed at me intently with her glistening gold-green eyes before responding. When she gave the answer of defiance I was expecting, I was fully prepared to carry her out of there. But, I decided to try my luck one more time,

"Just...please?" I doubted this will work, but it takes a lot in me to say this to a stranger I don't have patience for.

"Yes." I had never heard that before. _She doesn't even know me, how can she trust me? To be honest, that was more of a joke than anything else._ I was so shocked at her response I didn't know what to say. I explained the plan to her and we started down the tree. I was running towards the jet, but I didn't hear footsteps behind me. I spun around to see that she was lying on the bricks by the tree. I ran over and picked her up as if she weighed nothing. There was a deep gash on the right side of her forehead; _What have I done? I should have helped her…_ I saw her touching the wound on her head. _W_ _ait, she is still awake? She should be out cold right now._ \- _I bet she's gonna have some broken bones…_ I was snapped out of my thoughts by her question; she asked me my name. I contemplated lying; I was taught never to share my name, but... _I mean there's no harm in that right? It's not even my name, it's just a nickname. She won't know who I am._ I looked down at her and answered,

"Bucky." It felt great to tell my real name to a stranger. It felt great to tell the truth.


End file.
